In the investigation of the so-called “weekend snipers” in Sarajevo—allegedly paid to kill, including women, the elderly, and children, during the siege of the city by Bosnian Serb forces between 1992 and 1995—the first murder suspect has emerged, ANSA reported today.
According to information obtained during the investigation conducted by the Carabinieri Special Operations Group (ROS), under the coordination of public prosecutor Alessandro Gobis at the Milan Prosecutor’s Office led by Marcello Viola, an 80-year-old former truck driver from the province of Pordenone has been summoned for questioning.
Italian daily Il Giorno reports that the suspect is a former truck driver who worked for a metal processing company. According to the Milan Prosecutor’s Office, he is accused of “in complicity with other as-yet-unknown persons” causing the deaths of unarmed civilians—including women, the elderly, and children—by shooting with precision rifles from the hills around Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995. The crime has been classified as “murder with base motives.”
The newspaper states that the man allegedly boasted to others that he went on “human hunts” in Sarajevo during that period, based on testimonies collected during the investigation. Using witness statements recorded during interrogations, investigators and prosecutors identified the 80-year-old and decided to register him as a suspect for deliberate, continuous killings, i.e., multiple episodes, and summoned him to the Milan Prosecutor’s Office on February 9.
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The former truck driver was today summoned and searched. ROS investigators found seven legally owned firearms in his home: two pistols, one carbine, and four rifles.
The investigation was initiated in Milan several months ago following a criminal complaint filed by writer and journalist Ecio Gavaceni, with the assistance of lawyers Nikola Brigida and Guido Salvini.
In the complaint, Gavaceni cites statements from Edin Subašić, a former agent of the Bosnian security services, who said that in early 1994, Bosnian authorities informed their Italian counterparts that “tourist shooters” were coming from Trieste to participate in these “safaris.”
Italian authorities allegedly “stopped” these “horrific safaris,” ANSA reports.
Subašić also claimed that documents may exist confirming contacts between Bosnian and Italian agents, including possible identification of perpetrators.
The investigation also relies on reports from former Sarajevo mayor Benjamina Karić, who identified at least five individuals mentioned or depicted in the 2022 documentary Sarajevo Safari by Slovenian director Miran Zupanič.
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Source: Nova.rs; Foto: CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP